Pipe for wind musical instruments



(No Model.) A. V. GHEVERS.

PIPE FOR WIND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Patented Feb. 3, 1891.

I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AURION VILA OHEVERS, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNOR OF 'lHREE-FOUR'lI-IS TO FRANK \VINFIELD ROOKIVELL AND DANIEL RUS- SELL BROIVN, OF SAME PLACE, AND PATRICK .IOSEPII MOELROY, OF EAST CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

PIPE FOR WIND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 445,849, dated February 3, 1891.

Application filed May 10, 1888. Serial No. 273,405 (No model.)

To alt who/1t it may colwcrlt:

Be it known that I, AURION VILA CHEvERs, of the city and county ofwProvidence, and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pipes for Wind Musical Instruments; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings furnished and forming a part of the same, is a clear, true, and complete description of my invention.

My said improvements relate to such pipes as were disclosed in my Letters Patent No. 373,012, dated November 8, 1887. In the manufacture of these pipes glass is mainly relied upon, and little or no diflieulty is encountered in initially getting very nearly the desired tone in each pipe; but the necessity for nice graduation and maintaining it securely is in1- perative, and to accomplish this is one object of my invention. In other words, I desire that this tuning the pipes should be readily performed and by means which will not be liable to subsequent derangement. In my said Letters Patent I provided for tuning such pipes on the well-known telescopic principle, and this I still employ; but I now provide the telescoped parts of the pipeswith means which enable the tuning adjustment to be readily and accurately performed and permanently secured as against variation.

Certain novel forms of my musical pipes devised by me have straight lengths of diiterent and progressively-reduced diameters, and by employing two or more of these tuningappliances,one in each of said lengths, I am enabled not only to obtain the requisite sound, but also to more or less varyit as to richness orquality. In the use of the telescoped pipes I have discovered that their vibratory action is liable to derange the position of the sliding portion of the pipe or sleeve which is adjusted for tuning, and I find it important to not only guard against this derangement, but also to provide for convenient and accurate adjustment. I therefore so combine the slidi g pipe or sleeve with the pipe or sleeve to which it serves as an extension that said sliding sleeve or pipe cannot when once adjusted be moved longitudinallywithoutspecialmanipulation as, for instance, said sleeve or pipe may be provided with a screw thread or a spiral groove and a stud, so that in tuning a pipe the movable sleeve must be rotated by hand, in order that it may be longitudinally adjusted, or with a thumb-screw or other form of locking device which will firmly secure the sleeve in its adjusted position, and which must be released before any longitudinal movement will be possible.

After describing the several embodiments of my invention illustrated in the drawings, the features deemed novel will be specified in the several clauses of claims hereunto annexed.

Figure 1 illustrates in side view a novel musical pipe embodying my invention in a desirable form. Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same. Fig. 3 is a side view of a simpler form of pipe with its tuning appliance. Fig. l in section illustrates the tuning appliance, Fig. 3, detached and having a glass bushing in one end thereof. Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate still another form of my musical pipe provided with a tuning-sleeve and a locking device.

It will be understood that my pipes necessarily include an air-pipe a, which is coupled to a sounding or musical pipe I), so that a current of air passing out of the air-pipe will be directed at substantially right angles across or partially into the mouth of the soundingpipe.

The musical orsounding pipe I) of Figs. 1 and 2 is constructed in three straight lengths progressively reduced in diameter. The mouthpiece length l) is of the largest diameter, the next or middle length I) is of a reduced diameter, and the next or terminal length Z) is of still smaller diameter, and each of these is usually composed of glass. Between each two of these lengths a metal tube and a tuningsleeve are interposed, and these are respectively coupled to the glass portions. These tubes 0 and sleeves c are telescoped together and coupled by means of a spiral groove, as clearly shown, so that by slightly turning one of either or both of the two sleeves the pipe may be elongated or shortened. The metal tubes and sleeves are firmly secured to the glass, preferably by means of a cementing material, which will become quite hard, and the sleeves should fit the tubes as snugly as practicable, so as to avoid independent vibration. In tuning such api-peit will sometimes be necessary to only manipulate one of the sleeves; but in other cases both sleeves should be adjusted. If the required elongation or retraction be considerable in extent and it be Wholly accomplished at one sleeve, the variation in tone is restricted to that particular portion of the pipe, whereas if the variation be divided among two or more-portions of said pipe of different diameters more'or less variation will accrue in the richness or quality of the tone. 7

In Fig. 3 the upper or mouth section b is as in Fig. l, and it has a reduced tip towhich the tube 0 is attached,and this ,.with the sleeve 0', constitutes the lower or second straight lengthof the pipe, having a reduced diame- .ter.- In many'cases such a sleeve is provided with a short glass tip or bushing d, as shown in Fig. 4, said tip being secured therein' and serving to obviate such objectionable vibrations as are sometimes liable with the thin spun or drawn metal of which the sleeves are preferably composed. It is to be understood that in some cases Iconstruct my glass pipes in one piece with the two or more straight lengths progressively reduced in diameter, in which case one sleeve or a tube and a tuningsleeve may be applied to the small end.

In many cases the simple spiral connection will be all that is required to confine the sleeves against longitudinal derangement; but I' sometimes supplement said spiral .connection with a thumb-screw, as at 6, Fig.1, which, by engaging. with the inner tube, serves as a locking device. So, also, in some cases the spiral feature may be dispensed with, as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, wherein the musical pipehas its air-pipe a at one end, while the tuning pipe and sleeve 0 c are at right angles to the body of the pipe and attached to a neck b provided for the purpose. In this case the sleeve 0' is held in place only by the thumb-screw e, and it will obviously be immaterial in what manner the sleeves are locked against longitudinal movement, so long said sleeves must also be capable of being moved easily and even delicately for purposes of adjustment when said locking devices have been loosened. It will also sometimes be unnecessary to employ more than.

the metal sleeve 0 with its locking device, as when the sounding-pipe or a branch thereof is long enough and has a concentric exterior surface capable of being properly telescoped by said sleeve. It will also be understood that the tuning-sleeve need not always have an open end, because, as is clearly indicated in my aforesaid Letters Patent, it is at times only necessary to vary the interior dimensions of a sounding-pipe for varying its tone.

In some cases I find it desirable to employ paper or other packing between the sliding sleeve or pipe and the pipe on which it slides, whether both pipes be composed of glass or of metaL-the packing absolutely preventing all liability of rattling vibration. I

Having thus described myi nventionJ claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The combination of a musical soundingpipe constructed intwo or more straight lengths of different and progressively-reduced diameters and an air-pipe coupled to the month of said pipe, substantially as described.

2. A musical sounding-pipe constructed in two or more straight lengths of diiferent and progressively-reduced diameters and having tuning-sleeves between said lengths, in-combin ation with an air-pipe coupled to the mouth of said pipe, substantially as described.

3. The combination of a musical soundingpipe, an air-pipe coupled to it at its mouth, and a tuning-sleeve on the sounding-pipe adj ustably secured against longitudinal derangement, substantially as described, whereby the interior capacity of said sounding-pipe may be varied for accurately tuning and then securely maintaining it against such variations in adjustment as would otherwise be liable to occur as a result of the vibrations of the pipe.

AURION VILA OHEVERS.

Witnesses:

Louis B. SOUTHWORTH, AUGUSTUS J. WINsHIP, Jr. 

